Sojen Cellars Winemaker Dinner - Russell's Dining & Bar - Bothell, WA

I’m so excited to be able to post about the second winemaker dinner I was able to attend. On April 22nd, 2010, Russell’s Dining & Bar in Bothell (@RussellsDining) hosted Sojen Cellars (@sojencellars, @sojengirl) for a winemaker dinner at the restaurant. After my first experience at the Andrew Will dinner, I was very excited to try wine and food pairings from a winery that I already knew quite well at a restaurant that I consider one of my favorites. Once again, neither winery nor restaurant disappointed. Sojen Cellars is owned and operated by Max & Jen Jensen and has a tasting room located in Everett, WA. The winery is a side project and passion for Max & Jen, as they both have jobs outside of the winery. While I haven’t had a chance to make it to the tasting room in Everett yet, I hear they have some great Friday night events with live music and tastings. I look forward to heading up there one of these days!

Our first course of the dinner was pan seared early season halibut served with baby spinach and arugula, wild mustard and thyme vinaigrette and manchego cheese. This amazing course was paired with Sojen’s 2008 Olive’s White Blend. This wine was actually named after a dog, a small pug named Olive! This white blend was an amazing pair for the flavorful halibut and a great way to begin the meal. A crisp white is so perfect with tender halibut. I tore through my plate so fast that I didn’t even get a shot of the course before hand. See photo below, it was just THAT good.



Next we moved on to a roasted pintelle with beluga lentils, spring carrots and natural jus. This course was served with Sojen’s ‘Ride Wild’ Cave B Syrah. This 100% Syrah was named for Sojen’s neighbor, a motorcycle shop! The label is great and lively and the same can be said about the wine. This is a very jammy, fruit forward Syrah and as Jen Jensen stated “it’s a California wine from Washington”. This wine ended up being my favorite, and I definitely purchased a bottle to go home with me. Pintelle is something I have never had before and what a treat that was. The combination of the pintelle and the lentils was fantastic.



Our third course was a cedar roasted pork tenderloin with white pepper polenta, smoked poblano jam, braised cipollini onions, and Italian prune glaze. This amazing dish was served with the Sojen Cellars 2006 Broken Oar Red Cabernet/Merlot blend. This wine was originally made for local Wine Styles stores and is a 40% Merlot and 60% Cab. This was a deep and sassy wine and was quite enjoyable. The pork tenderloin served in this course was by far the best I have ever had. Normally (at least for me) when you taste a pork tenderloin, it’s fairly dry and you usually dip in juice or sauce for additional flavor. Not this dish. The pork was cooked perfectly and the flavors at the first bite were so amazing that no additional sauce was necessary. I can’t say that I am usually “wowed” by pork dishes, but I most definitely was at this meal.


We finished up our meal with a rhubarb and strawberry marscarpone cheesecake with begonia petals (edible flowers, who knew?!) and blueberry preserves. This delicious dessert was served along with the Sojen 2007 Broken Oar Syrah. This wine hits the pallet hard at first, but finishes smooth. It was a great complement to the sweet flavors in the dessert. While I’m not normally a cheesecake fan, this dessert was different than the norm, and was such a wonderful way to end our meal.


Overall. I was extremely impressed with this dinner and accompanying wine pairings. Russell’s sends some of my favorite dishes out of the kitchen consistently and the experience at the restaurant is always wonderful. It was nice to have owner Russell Dean Lowell come out and explain each course, making sure it hit the table at just the right moment during the meal. It was also great to see Max & Jen Jensen again, two people I always have a wonderful time with. What amazing winemaker dinner will I attend next? Stay tuned…

North Seattle Tax Day Tweet Up - Black Pearl Restaurant - Seattle, WA

Back on April 15th, everyone's favorite day of the year, a local restaurant and some writers put together a great tweet up to celebrate "Tax Day" with some great food and wine. The event was hosted by @BlackPearlSEA, @NorthESea, and @Seattle_Events and was held at Black Pearl Restaurant's Wedgewood location in North Seattle. We had a great little group in attendance to try out a variety of dishes from Black Pearl as well as a number of different wines donated for the event by @NWTotemCellars and @grlakewine. There were some faces I knew already, including @jenkmiller, @colbyjn, @BlackPearlSEA and @chrispirillo as well many new people I had never met before: @NorthESea, @Seattle_Events, @posiegirl, @hnlmark, @bananablossom, @danaek, @belvoir, @mypartini, and @chefamadeus. It was great to meet so many new people and share thoughts on the amazing food and wines we were able to try. The amazing Annie @BlackPearlSEA worked with @yasharseattle to pair the wine and food dishes for the event.

The menu started out with a spicy sesame chicken paired with a Spanish Xarelo donated by @grlakewine. This was very fresh chicken in an amazing sauce. This paired nicely with this very refreshing white, one I love to call a "sunshine wine".


Next we moved on to a spicy fish in szechuan sauce, which we tasted along with a Randall Harris Sauvignon Blanc, which was also donated by @grlakewine. This was a very tender fish with a very spicy flavor with the aftertaste. The very fruity and flowery Sauv Blanc was a refreshing and perfect pair for this spicy dish. This was a big favorite of many in attendance!

Next we tried a salt and pepper crispy fried calamari paired with the @NWTotemCellars Salish. This 60% riesling and 40% viognier was a nice sweet wine that complimented this lightly breaded, but spicy, calamari.


We then moved on to beef chow mein with homemade noodles, which was paired with the @NWTotemCellars Potlatch, a 52% Syrah, 47% Tempranillo and 1% Petit Verdot. This was by far my favorite dish of the entire evening. Just saying "homemade noodles" does not do this dish justice. The noodles are made in-house daily and are thicker, bigger and better than any chow mein noodles I have ever had. I could just eat an entire bowl of these on their own and be completely satisfied. This is a must try when dining at @BlackPearlSEA. The flavors of the paired wine really stood out and this was a great blend.

Next up were pot sticker dumplings in both pork and vegetarian flavors. This was served along with a Randall Harris Syrah, donated by @grlakewine. The pork dumpling was my favorite of the two flavors, and was even better with some soy sauce. The Randall Harris was a very flavorful Syrah that was very tasty along with the pork flavors.

We moved on to a mongolian beef, paired with the @NWTotemCellars Syrah. The mongolian beef was very spicy and very tasty and I was amazed at how well the Syrah tempered the spicy nature of the beef. I had never thought about wine pairings with spicy food before, but this was definitely one I will be trying again. I was happy to get to take home a bit of leftovers of the beef, it was fantastic!

Last, but certainly not least, we tasted some shrimp cakes along with the @NWTotemCellars Late Harvest Viognier. The shrimp cakes had a wonderful sweet plum sauce accompanying them, which was terrific along with the sweet Late Harvest Viognier. As @chrispirillo commented on the wine: "this tastes like skittles!". It was a very pleasant dessert wine that I look forward to trying again!


Overall, my first visit to Black Pearl Restaurant was amazing and I look forward to dining there again. I couldn't believe the extent of dishes we were able to try, and we barely even grazed the surface of all they have to offer on their menu. I was excited to see that they offer delivery, but disappointed when I realized I live outside their delivery area! I'll just have to make the drive! It was great to try some new types of food and wine pairings, and it gave me some great ideas for the future. Thanks to all who organized this great "Tax Day" event.

Barrage Cellars - Woodinville, WA

A few posts ago I had mentioned that I would have a write-up on the Barrage Cellars 2007 Outcast Cab Franc. Well, that time has finally come! I was finally able to enjoy this bottle with some friends while on a trip down in Utah (yes, I took my own wine.. sssh.. don't tell!). I thought it would be fun to get the first taste notes and flavor opinions from all of the people I was drinking it with, so they are all included here as well. In attendance for this bottle was myself (Taryn), Heather (a born and bred wine lover), Tyler (fiance of Heather, her wine love has rubbed off on him), and Ryan (Tyler's roommate, and oddly enough someone I went to high school with in AK!).

To start with, a little about Barrage Cellars: Barrage is owned and operated by Kevin Correll and his lovely wife Rebecca. They have a wonderful space in the Woodinville Warehouse District, side by side with many other wineries that have space in the area as well. Their tasting room is beautifully simple and inviting, where you're greeted right as you walk through the door. The barrel room in the back of their space holds the liquid treasure that has yet to be bottled. This is a great winery that produces some fantastic wines.




The 2007 Outcast Cab Franc is 100% Cab Franc from the Boushey Vineyard in Grandview, WA. My first impression of the aroma of this wine was that it was very pleasant and that of a true cab franc. My first taste was delightful, and the flavors consumed the entire mouth. Especially noteworthy was the taste I got on the back of the pallet, which was very smooth. Flavors of black cherry were present and kept me wanting more. It has a beautiful dark color that is very solid when you try to take a look through the glass. I am a big fan of caesar salad (I make mine from scratch!) and the rich garlic flavors of that salad would be so tasty with this wine. In fact, I would eat just about any food with this wine! The wine definitely improved as it sat open for awhile, and decanting it would make it even better.

Heather's opinion was that it had a "nice bouquet" and that at first taste it was very "fruit forward" and "very smooth". Tyler said that it had "a nice aroma" and that the wine was "good, and very smooth". He went on to say that it was "not overly complex, but complex enough" (my favorite note of the tasting!). Ryan tasted it and announced "I like hot cabs" and said that it has "a fair amount of black cherry". Everyone in attendance was a big fan of the 2007 Outcast Cab Franc and we were very lucky to enjoy this bottle to start out our Friday night!

Thanks again to Kevin Correll for creating such a tasty wine. I look forward to what the future vintages have to offer!

Washington Merlot Tweetup - Seattle Wine Outlet - Seattle, WA

Now, Merlot has never been a favorite of mine and is never my first choice on a wine list. But when Josh Wade (@nectarwine) of Drink Nectar put together the WA Merlot tasting for March 25th, 2010, I knew it could not be missed. The tweetup I attended for this celebration of Washington State Merlot was at Seattle Wine Outlet (@SeaWineOutlet), at their Interbay location. I had never had a chance to visit either of their store locations and I was super excited to see that their Interbay store was so close to where I live (can we say new favorite place to get wine??). My good friend, the wonderful Seattle Wine Gal (@SeattleWineGal) put together the event with the help of the awesome staff at Seattle Wine Outlet. They had a terrific sitting area with tables and chairs where we could all gather around and sip our wines and discuss together. It was the perfect venue for our event.


In addition to seeing some familiar faces in @BlackPearlSEA and @SeattleWineGal's other half Jason, I was able to meet a few new twitter folk at this event, including @KarenRosenzweig, @larsryssdal, @HipsForHire, @jojolocal, @kirste, and the one and only @ChrisPirillo (who provided quite the wine commentary at the event, with some of my favorite quotes to come). Owner Richard Kinssies put together some amazing snacks for us to accompany our wine, including several cheeses (so wonderful!) and pulled pork sandwiches! We lucked out in getting to have our event here!

We had nine different wineries featured in our line-up for the event. Some I had tasted before, but most were brand new to me. What I liked most about this event was that by trying so many different types of Merlot, I was able to determine what it is that I do and do not like in this varietal. The following wines were featured at our event:

-Latah Creek Winery (@LatahCreekWine) 2008 Wahluke Slope Pheasants Vineyard Merlot
-Hard Row to Hoe Vineyards (@hardrow) 2007 Shameless Hussy Merlot
-Milbrandt Vineyards (@milbrandtvino) 2007 Traditions Columbia Valley Merlot
-Maryhill Winery (@MaryhillWinery) 2006 Columbia Valley Merlot and 2006 Proprietor's Reserve Merlot
-Wilridge Winery (@wilridge) 2003 Klipsun Vineyards Red Mountain Merlot
-Hestia Cellars (@HestiaCellars) 2007 Columbia Valley Merlot
-Sparkman Cellars (@SparkmanCellars) 2007 Outlaw Red Mountain Merlot
-Pepper Bridge Winery (@PepperBridge 2007 Walla Walla Valley Merlot
-Barrage Cellars (@BarrageCellars) 2007 Trifecta Merlot

My favorites of these included the Hard Row to How Shameless Hussy (that was a fun one to crack jokes about, I think mine was something like "she really gets around the table"), the Milbrandt Traditions Merlot, the Maryhill Proprietor's Reserve, and the Barrage Cellars Trifecta. While I enjoyed most of the wines I tasted, these wines stood out as my favorites of the bunch. I don't like a very peppery Merlot. I like the smooth finish that hits the taste buds in just the right way. I will say that I will definitely be trying these favorites again!

Some of the best quotes of the night came from @ChrisPirillo, who held his wine like a "goblet" and referred to the Maryhill Reserve by saying "it's like a summer day picnic without humidity or ants". He also said that the Hard Row Shameless Hussy was "sexy; it's nibbling my tongue". Oh the laughs were a plenty during this event with Chris's colorful commentary. It was a great group to be at a tasting with and I was so fortunate to have met everyone!

(big thanks to Seattle Wine Gal for taking such an adorable picture of us w/ her phone. I just had to share it here!)